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Good Stuff Aphex glad you like it.
Firstly many apologies to those waiting for feather damascus blades all is hunky dory and they will be next to finish up. Truth is I got stuck on Judd's Suji, san mai with mosaic patterns was proving troublesome in terms of getting the pattern to look nice. So I have made a different plan for it. I meant to get the feathers done first but i'm like a dog with a bone when something goes wrong and I can't concentrate on much else until I have solved it.
Any way here is the different plan. Its a butterflies pattern but much finer lines, so looks a bit different. To solve the compression issues with san mai, this is an edge weld on blue paper steel with pure nickel in between, mainly as a visual break between the edge and the pattern. This was a tricky one and i'm pretty pleased with it. Ht and plenty more grinding to go on that one. Some wip pics.
There were two, first one the edge was not wide enough, due the the way the material bows when forged down the edge diminishes a tad during grinding, rather than climbing up the bevel like in san mai, so I had to allow for this on the 2nd go. The other is still savable but will be just damascus. I have quite a few salvage blades to get out after all this experimenting.
This was the first billet, ended up with not enough edge material on this one so doubled up on the next.
Blade entirely forged to shape so we have the edge material in the right place.
Here you can see the construction evidence and the bow in the nickel.
Becoming a V where it is more forged down towards the tip.

Judd's Suji is now Ht'd and well on its way to being ground. All the feather pattern blades are nearly done hand finishing. I'm doing about 3 things at once in there at the moment, but after next week I should be able to concentrate on knives for a while, which is what I want to be doing.
Here is Judd's, first bevel ground in and tapered, its a beast at the moment. 320mm blade 50mm deep. Taper i'm planning 3.5mm 2.5mm 1mm or a touch less an inch from the tip, hope the depth is ok, it seems to suit the length and profile we discussed, should end up around 48/49mm.

Looking great Will.
Judd probably forgot to tell you to send the knife to me first for a 2 year evaluation period.
You have my address. and don't worry, I will forward it to Judd when/if I get tired of it.

Can't wait to see some of the squirrel tail knives when they are finished.
You are doing some beautiful knives. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for posting the great photos.

I spoke to Judd on the phone and he seemed pleased about the way this was going. He was looking forward to the Vasticola handle on this thing. He was hoping there would be enough material so the paring knife could be rehandled in Vasticola too.

Thanks Mark the squirrels are getting polished, yep looking forward to getting all these handled and etched now. Have a lot of exciting woods to work, mainly from our friend mark, the red vascota? For Judd, real nice two tone amboyna and some really dark and contrasty Koa.